Life, travel, and living beyond your expectations

Live tweeting – Fair and accurate in 140 characters or less?

The act of live tweeting – sending out a flurry of tidbits on Twitter about what’s happening at a live event – is as old as Twitter itself. After all, the medium lends itself to that kind of communication. And these days everything is live tweeted — news conferences, trade shows, awards shows like the American Music Awards, and even live births!

I had asked a few weeks back for people to vote in a poll – Do you follow real-time, live tweets from events, news conferences, and trade shows? The answer (from this non-scientific, small sample poll) was a big YES. Good to know that someone is paying attention in real-time.

However, it got me thinking about those who partake in live tweeting. Are they considered by their readers as citizen journalists? And if journalism rules are expected, is it possible to be fair and accurate in 140 or less? I’ve been following this story coming out of Australia in which live tweeting put a journalist in legal hot water.